Samantha awoke with a pounding headache and aching muscles. Though her eyes were still closed, system notifications shone in her mind’s eye, the message apparently waiting patiently until she could consciously address it.

*Ding* Your efforts to improve yourself have borne fruit! Training to master your body movements in combination with pushing your body beyond its current limits has granted +1 to Agility.

*Ding* Sustained diligence in mastering the Sage’s Rumination combat art has made maintaining the technique as easy as breathing. Updates have been made to your profile to reflect this.

Despite her current predicament of feeling like a horse had kicked her in the head--and perhaps with the strength behind the blow of a peak Copper this comparison was not overly exaggerated--the news of her advancement managed to lift her spirits somewhat. Excited to see the changes for herself, she pulled up her profile.

Name: Samantha Cray

Age: 17

Cultivation Level: Mid Copper

Qi pool: Vital Wellspring Cultivation Technique

6/18 (+0.8 qi points/hour [x2 Sage’s Rumination])

*Excess qi regen currently allocated to Flawless Regeneration

Body Cultivation:

Heart Meridian (Endurance)

Combat Arts:

Flawless Regeneration (Variable cost)

Meridian Requirements: Heart

By cycling qi through your heart meridian and circulatory system, you can repair any physical wound your qi has access to! All regeneration will occur without scarring, incorrectly set bones, or misplaced organs, so crippling injuries are a thing of the past! Qi cost varies greatly based on severity of the damage and the speed at which you want the healing to occur.

Inspect (Base cost 1 qi)

By focusing your spiritual senses on a target, you can get basic information about it. This art will have a higher rate of success for targets at or below your cultivation level and stage. On failure, has a chance to notify the target of your attempt. Extra qi can be expended to learn more details, but the cost will always be a minimum of 1.

Swift (Base cost 1 qi/second)

For every 1 qi point spent per second, you will gain +2 agility. For each additional qi point spent per second, gain +1 agility. After the ability ends agility will return to normal levels

Passive Arts:

As One

You and your bond share vitality. If one is wounded or healed, the effect is split between the two parties. You will rise or fall as one.

Prey’s Perception

Gain increased passive awareness of your surroundings. Affects all senses

Poison Connoisseur

Inherit the toxin processing abilities of your bond. You will more easily gain resistances to any poisons you encounter

Corrosive Poison Resistance – Rank 1

Future encounters with corrosive poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Sage’s Rumination

You have mastered the art of multitasking. Regardless of what your conscious mind is doing, you are able to maintain a permanent state of meditation, doubling your natural qi regeneration rate.

Attributes:

Strength: 6

Agility: 9

Endurance: 8

Resilience: 6

Spirit Bonds:

Silas (Rank 4 Lunar Hare – Low)

Strength: 2

Agility: 12

Endurance: 5

Resilience: 4

Her next order of business was to try and contact Silas, but no matter how she tried, the mental communication seemed garbled and unclear. She could tell that he was alive and in pain like herself, but nothing more. She’d reach out again later after her head hurt less...

Reluctant to move and cause herself further pain, she first cracked open her eyes to get a feel for her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that she was no longer within the arena circle. Instead, light from a qi-powered lantern that hung from a canvas tent roof greeted her. Muted conversations were coming from somewhere nearby, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate on the voices long enough to parse the words, not to mention the dull ringing in her ears that threatened to drown out all other sounds. It took a minute for her to reason out that she must have been taken to the medical tent after her bout, her foggy thoughts making the task much more difficult than it should have been.

Uncomfortable with lying down around strangers while feeling wounded and vulnerable, she slowly moved in an attempt to sit up; however, the resulting nausea and dizziness promptly kicked her back down into the prone position. She shut her eyes and took some deep breaths to suppress the bile she felt rising in the back of her throat, her mouth watering as it sensed that vomit was incoming.

“You… this the best... can do? She... sick... from... sit up!” someone accused, their voice drowned out in places by the ringing.

“...injury… extensive! ...frankly astonishing... dead.” another replied, sounding tired and irritated.

More heated words were exchanged, but Samantha tuned them out as she concerned herself with the dangerous rumbling in her stomach. Luckily, before she was forced to throw up on herself, strong arms eased her up into the sitting position and placed a foul-smelling bucket in front of her. The unexpected scent was too much for her already struggling self-control and pushed her over the edge, her stomach emptying itself into the container.

A cold sweat broke out over her entire body as she tried to halt a relentless rhythm of dry heaving. Each time she tried to take a breath or open her eyes, the smell from the bucket or the sight of what was inside caused the cycle to renew itself. She strained to remember a time when she had ever felt so ill, but couldn’t. Even having her arm blown off was not as crippling an experience.

After a few minutes she was finally able to get her body back under control, and the bucket was blessedly taken away from her and replaced with a cup of medicinal smelling tea. The unique purple color was something she had never seen before, but her addled mind couldn’t be bothered to question it. She quickly downed the liquid in an attempt to wash out the lingering taste on her tongue. Whatever flavor the tea was, she believed it couldn’t possibly be worse than what she was currently experiencing.

She was mistaken.

The indescribable bitterness didn’t register until she had already drank the entire cup, much too late to spit it out and spare herself. Shockingly though, instead of causing her to be sick again as she would have expected, whatever herbs the tea was brewed with completely settled her stomach. It didn’t make her other ailments disappear, but she would take any help she could get.

“How are you feeling, Lunara?” a feminine voice inquired. A hand that nearly engulfed her shoulder gripped her lightly, and she looked towards the source. It was her acquaintance, Tiny.

She tried to form a response, but found it hard to concentrate through the hammering in her skull. Frustrated, she activated Flawless Regeneration, focusing on her head. The healing energies flowed through her like cool, cleansing spring water, and her thoughts sharpened as the hammering wound down to light knocking.

“Like utter garbage.... but did I win?” she replied, a sardonic grin spreading across her face.

Tiny let out a hoot of laughter and slapped her knee at Samantha’s joke, “You’ll be just fine, if that’s the first thing out of your mouth.”

“If you ask the proprietors, I won the fight. But I don’t think it’s as clear cut as that.” a male voice said from next to her.

Glancing over towards the voice, an unfamiliar man was seated in a cot and looking her way. Judging by the context of his words and the generous wrappings around his bare torso, she was speaking to none other than the Champion, Samson.

He looked to be around Thomas’s age, perhaps 20 or 21 years old. Unlike Thomas, who’s popularity with the opposite sex came from his rugged, strong features, Samson’s face--though still handsome--was more on the boyish side. In contrast with his towering height, broad shoulders, and scarred skin that was indicative of a warrior’s life, his face did not match up with what she would have expected. Without the intimidating mask and his oppressive aura weighing down on her, he almost seemed approachable.

Seeing his unmasked appearance, Samantha suddenly realized that she was also without any sort of face covering. It made sense, since she had a head wound that needed treatment, but she fought back a brief surge of panic at having her identity be revealed so nonchalantly. She could only hope that the people who had seen her face didn’t think much of it, because making a scene would only draw attention to the fact that she was actively hiding her identity rather than following tradition. Caught off guard by this turn of events, Samantha was temporarily at a loss for words. Thankfully, Samson filled the conversation gap himself.

“When you pierced me with your spear, you were moving so quickly I could hardly react. Were this a life or death match and not a tournament fight, you could have easily aimed for a vital point and killed me. Granted, I probably would have approached the opening of the battle differently if I were aiming to kill as well, but still...” He explained, expanding on his previous statement. His eyes met hers for a moment, before he looked down and away as if he felt ashamed.

“...I’m glad you woke up before the market closed and I had to leave. I wanted to apologize for my final strike against you. I was... shocked by your blow, and counterattacked on reflex without fully considering the consequences. Were you not so surprisingly sturdy... let’s just say I’m glad to see that I’ve not actually done you any irreparable harm.” He concluded, the words halting as if he was having difficulty finding the right phrasing.

Samantha’s eyes widened slightly at this seemingly sincere apology. Based on her limited personal experience and speaking with Thomas over the years, how cultivators approached peer relationships generally fell into two camps. On the one hand, there were those who viewed other cultivators as bitter rivals to be utterly conquered, and only respected cultivators of equal or greater power. On the other hand, there were those who viewed even ‘weaker’ cultivators as potential allies since there was always the possibility of them rising to great power, in which case it was strategic to be in their good graces early. It surprised her to see that Samson, the feared Champion, apparently belonged to the latter ideology. It seemed she wasn’t the only one, either.

Tiny uttered a small gasp, “A strong man who can properly admit wrongdoing? Sign me up! Are you taken by any of the local ladies, Felix? If not, I may have a proposal for you. ” she teased, giving a playful wink and waggling her eyebrows at him.

“Felix?” Samantha asked, confused.

Tactfully ignoring Tiny’s flirtations, Samson answered, “I think I’ve had enough of these tournaments, so I’m calling it quits. No need for the stage name anymore, so you can call me Felix.”

“I see, Felix it is then. May I ask why you’re leaving the tournaments? From what I’ve heard you’ve been a staple here for quite some time.” Samantha inquired tentatively.

Felix nodded, unbothered by her question. “There’s no major reason, it just seemed with my loss of the Champion title that now is as good a time to leave as any other. I originally joined to get more fighting experience and cultivation knowledge to hasten my ascent to Bronze, but the fights stopped being truly helpful months ago. The winnings were a nice bonus, but I don’t really need the money. Speaking of which…”

He reached into a small pouch next to him and drew out 6 silver pieces, tossing them underhand to Samantha. She caught the money, a bit confused as to why he was paying her.

“My portion of the winnings from our fight. Let there be no ill will between us going forward.” he said simply at her bewildered expression.

“Agreed, let the slate be wiped clean.” she responded formally, bowing to Felix in thanks--as much as she could in the cot, anyway. Felix grunted in acknowledgement, before slowly standing up and making his way to the door. She decided to push her luck a bit further before the chance to speak with a Peak Copper completely passed her by, “If it’s not too presumptuous, do you have any tips for the higher cultivation levels?”

He paused his stride, looked up towards the ceiling, and tapped his chin thoughtfully, considering how to answer. “Fight. A lot. Many people stagnate because they become complacent and do not exercise their dantian enough to break through to the next stage. Practicing combat arts within the safety of training grounds or spars isn’t bad, but depleting and refilling your qi reserves in the heat of battle is the best for quick advancement.”

“I second that!” Tiny chimed in, without elaborating further.

And before Samantha had a chance to squeeze in another question Felix left the tent and was gone.

“Oh! Before I forget.” Tiny said, reaching into a purse hanging from her belt, “A deal’s a deal! Pay well earned, if you ask me.”

1 Gold and 3 silver pieces were placed into Samantha’s hand, and she wondered if there was some mistake.

“You’re looking at the new Champion of the tournament!” Tiny exclaimed, beaming from ear to ear, “I also feel bad that we nearly caused you to get your head knocked clean off your body, so the gold is from me. The three silver is your payout from your fight with Felix, which I’ve been holding for you. You would not believe the fights after you knocked him out of the running and there was actually a chance for someone else to win for a change…”

Tiny spent the better part of a half hour filling her in on the highlights from some of the other duels while a nurse gave her final checks to make sure that she was mostly healthy. When the market was about an hour from closing for the night, she was finally well enough to get her planned shopping done.

Samantha donned her original shopping mask and clothes in a private corner of the tent, taking a moment to center herself in preparation for stealthing. Whether it was due to Flawless Regeneration working to repair her mind or the fact that Sage’s Rumination caused a portion of her mind to always be meditative and tranquil, she found the task easier than expected. When she was ready she and Tiny parted ways, Samantha promising to come visit Tiny at the tournaments if she visited the black market again in the next few weeks, and Samantha rushed off to buy from the remaining vendors. Just before re-entering the throng of patrons, she re-stealthed her aura and did her best to blend into the flow of the crowd. Unlike before when she had to choose between stealthing and sage’s rumination, she was now able to have both active at the same time.

She reached out to Silas again as she walked, “Hey buddy, you doing alright?”

“Owww… you better… bring back something good for me! You owe me big time.” Was the only response she received.

“Noted!” Samantha replied, inwardly grimacing. She’d definitely buy him something special to show her appreciation.

Her gains from the tournament combined with the money she took from the gambler brought her total wealth to 1 gold piece, 12 silver pieces, and 85 copper, or just over 2 gold pieces. In other words, she was essentially carrying 2 months worth of an average mortal’s wages on her person. Since carrying this much money around made her nervous and was practically asking for trouble in the slums, she saw no point in hoarding it. She decided to spend as much as she could while reserving enough to return to the black market another night.

Her first stop was the cultivation aids shop where she had originally planned to buy from. Upon nearing the stall, she noticed that the shopkeep and her hired guards were packing things up for the night. This did not deter her from approaching, however, because if working alongside her own family was anything to go by, merchants rarely turned down a last-minute sale.

The sounds of the market faded away as she entered the range of the silencing artifact, and she called out her intentions immediately so as not to waste time, “If you have any product left, I’m interested in buying!”

The woman held up a hand to halt her helper’s progress immediately, turning towards Samantha with an award-winning smile. “Oh! And here I thought I wouldn’t be seeing you again tonight. Lucky for you, I have a few things left. You want the same items as you were looking at before?”

“Yes, but I’ll take all 4 items you showed me. If my memory serves, all 4 would originally be worth 2 silver and 70 coppers, however I’m wondering if you’ll sell them for 2 silver and 35 copper? A small discount for a first time customer and buying multiple items.”

The merchant thought it over briefly, before replying, “I’ve had a good night, so I’ll go as low as 2 and a half silver. Essentially you’ll be getting the lowest priced item on the house, but I won’t haggle further. Do we have a deal?”

Samantha gladly placed the agreed upon amount on the table, taking the two qi absorption elixirs, the toxicity cleansing pill, and the meridian forging pill with her as she headed to the next shop. She had 1 gold, 10 silver, and 35 copper remaining.

Her next stop was a stall labeled “Cultivation Manuals”. There were several potential buyers browsing the layout of books and discussing between themselves when she arrived. At a glance, the lowest prices of the wares were 1 gold piece, while the highest end tomes sold for eye-watering prices upwards of 10 gold. Deciding to start at the cheapest wares, she looked over some of the options.

The first art that caught her eye was the “Reaping Blade” technique. It allowed a user to hone the qi infused into their armaments into a sharpened edge, both extending the range and lethality of their chosen weapon. Unfortunately, it required the hand meridians to be opened in order to work so she was currently unable to use it. The next art she looked at, “Fortified Body”, was generic enough that it didn’t require any specific meridians, but was something she wasn’t immediately interested in. For 5 qi it would raise the Resilience of the user by 2 points, but would only last for a minute or until the user was struck and the energy was dispersed. Investing more qi could extend the time it remained active, but wouldn’t increase the Resilience gained. It certainly wasn’t a bad art, but it wouldn’t be her first choice either because of the qi cost. The third art she looked at was called “Blood Manipulation”. She was initially excited by the name and the fact that it needed a heart meridian to be used, however when looking into what it actually did she was unimpressed. It basically allowed the user to plug their open wounds with qi, preventing them from bleeding out. She would rather just work to heal any injuries with Flawless Regeneration, so this art wasn’t interesting to her.

The rest of the 1 gold offerings weren’t very impressive either. There was a pattern she started noticing that the generic arts cost too much qi, and the ones that could possibly be useful required meridians she didn’t have open yet. Beginning to get frustrated by the options, an argument between the shopkeep and a patron caught her attention.

“You can’t possibly be serious with this price, can you? 3 gold for a manual with no actual techniques in it? Outrageous.” the shopper asserted.

“This is none other than a culmination of the renowned Master Xiao Qian’s teachings on technique creation! Rather than purchase a single art which can be outgrown, you could learn how to invent or design your own! To see this masterpiece going for the affordable price of only 3 gold is frankly an insult as it is.” the merchant declared adamantly.

“Is that so?” the shopper said in a mocking tone, “If it were so easy to manipulate qi and transform it into a functioning art without blowing yourself up, then everyone would do it! Have you even read the first page? It’s incomprehensible, theoretical jargon.” the shopper shot back.

The shopkeep opened his mouth to retort, but the shopper shook his head in disbelief and moved on to a different shopping stall before he had the chance.

The name Xiao Qian was one that every cultivator and aspiring cultivator knew. She was one of the most prolific qi art creators in the last millenia, known best for the flawless efficiency of her techniques rather than their destructive potential. Her underlying methodologies were the foundation for some of the most powerful techniques in use today, though all but a few of her original arts have fallen out of favor with the masses due to their difficulty.

“Incomprehensible, huh?” Samantha asked aloud, picking up the manual and flipping to a random page.

...like intermingling flows of the river, circulating in discordant confluences, the qi in your meridians must resonate harmoniously while you simultaneously aggregate surges of potency into your dantian...

Samantha’s head spun as she read the passage and struggled to envision Xiao Qian’s description. The meaning currently eluded her, but she strongly felt if she spent time studying the text that it was not impossible to understand. Even now, there was a sort of undeniable truth that rang out through the words, the explanation inviting her to read deeper and discover its secrets. She wanted it, but she needed to play it cool to get a good deal.

“Wow. That guy wasn’t kidding. Seriously, have you tried to read this?” Samantha asked, letting a bit of shock leak into her voice.

She saw the corner of the merchant’s mouth turn down a bit further than it already was, his shoulders sagging imperceptibly. As father had taught her, she had landed the first mental blow. And so, a fierce bout of cold-blooded haggling ensued.

10 minutes later and 1 gold and 5 silver poorer, Samantha was the proud owner of “Xiao Qian’s Compendium of Efficient Art Formation” and was on her way to the medicinal herb shop she saw nearby.

With 5 silver and 35 copper remaining, she had a decent amount of money to buy good quality herbs with. Focusing mostly on healing herbs but also buying a mid-grade healing pill for experimentation purposes, she eventually left the market with 95 copper remaining.

The return trip to her base was uneventful. Due to the early hour, very few people were awake in the slums. Focusing intently on Prey’s Perception and calling Silas out to double check if anyone was following her, both made it up into the rickety attic of the abandoned building without issue.

One of the first things that Samantha noticed was a decent sized pool of blood near the corner of the room. The result of sharing the damage of her injuries, no doubt. Guilt sprang up in her heart again, and she immediately pulled out the healing pill from her pack.

“Before I give you a ‘Thank-You’ treat, I wanted to test something. Do you get any negative effects from eating this healing pill, like blood toxicity?”

Silas wordlessly munched the orb down, soothing healing energies flowing between their bond as the pains of still-sore muscles and a headache faded away into nothing.

Silas sighed in contentment at the sensation into her mind, then said, “This is tasty...I want another! Do you have another?”. His fluffy tail wiggled as he looked up at her hopefully.

“No, not right now. But how many do you think you could eat before you had to stop?” Samantha asked.

“Stop? Why would I stop?” he replied, confused.

“You don’t feel ill or have any bad effects?” Samantha confirmed.

“No! It was delicious. I could eat these all day, but you don’t have more? That’s disappointing.” Silas said, pouting a bit.

There was an inkling of an idea forming in Samantha’s mind, but she couldn’t act on it yet so she vowed to come back to it later.

“Don’t be too sad, I got you these!” she comforted, pulling out a bundle of the higher quality herbs and setting them down in front of Silas. A screech of delight filled her mind as Silas heartily devoured the leafy greens, all sadness instantly forgotten as he indulged himself in gluttony if the feelings coming through their bond was any indication.

While Silas happily munched away, Samantha pulled out the two cultivation elixirs that she had purchased. Taking into account the late hour she went to the market, the time spent there and her time unconscious (around 4 hours based on how much qi she regained), she still had around 3 hours until sunrise. She theoretically had enough time to test how effective both of these black market products actually were, considering she could put off sleeping until tomorrow. Considering the blood cleansing pill, her poison resistance ability, and the healing energies she could call forth with herbs or arts, she felt confident she could handle it. Without further ado she downed the cheapest of the elixirs.

*Ding* Blood toxicity found in the body has activated “Poison Connoisseur”. Current blood toxicity tolerance at Rank 0 - 0%.

Samantha smiled to herself, she was killing two birds with one stone! Unfortunately, the quality of the elixir was about what she expected. She did feel a slightly increased surge of qi being pulled into her, but it was about the same level as what she could get just being outside the city in the slightly more qi-dense wilderness. Not seeing any reason to wait, she drank the second elixir as well.

*Ding* Blood toxicity found in the body has activated “Poison Connoisseur”. Current blood toxicity tolerance at Rank 0 - 1%.

*Ding* You’ve been affected with minor blood poisoning!

Samantha didn’t know what to expect after reading the second notification, but the familiar sensation of sickness greeted her almost as soon as she dismissed the message. Chills radiated through her body, and a sickly cold sweat started to form on her skin. She was surprised that As One was not activating, but she supposed it made sense. Damage wasn’t technically being done to her, she just felt ill. After her head injury experience, however, this level of discomfort was easily tolerable. Besides, this was a great chance for some free poison resistances!

The second elixir caused even more ambient qi to be drawn towards her dantian. While previously direct cultivation was not an option because the qi density in the city was too low, with both of these elixirs active she might actually be able to make some progress towards High Copper. So, she decided to pass the time until morning by meditating and practicing cultivating while stealthing.

The next several days passed in a blur, the exception being when she consoled Tiny for losing her Champion’s title to the freshly hired ringer after only two nights. During the morning she now fully assisted Aiden with his routes, and at night she would fight in the tournaments for coin to buy more elixirs and exercise her dantian as Felix suggested. Most of the free time she had in-between she spent reading through Xiao Qian’s Compendium to try and figure out how to start crafting her own arts. Through experimentation, Samantha found that the ideal number of elixirs to cultivate was three of the higher grade potions each night. The fourth elixir gave very limited benefits while a fifth made her feel so sick that she needed to take the blood cleansing pill to function. All the while, her blood toxicity tolerance steadily increased until she reached the second rank.

*Ding* You have reached Rank 2 of blood toxicity tolerance! Future blood poisoning will have its effects and duration decreased by 2/3rds. Changes have been made to your status page.

As for her findings while studying the compendium, it was a mixed bag. She didn’t make much progress on actually forging her own arts, but that was because she learned from the book that she needed more meridians open to test different options.

On the bright side, the book went into great depth on what meridians were, how they functioned, and how to streamline the process for opening them. According to Xiao Qian, meridians could be thought of as rivers with many smaller branching tributaries. When a meridian was unblocked and connected to a specific area of the body, the water flowing through it would feed the surrounding lands and cause it to flourish. This was why you could increase attributes or even gain enhanced capabilities when a meridian was unclogged. This tributary system was also how larger parts of the body could be affected at once by a single meridian.

She learned that the ideal opening rate is one meridian per rank, so one at Low, Mid, High, and Peak. Although she could open up more than that, the more she opened beyond the recommendations the slower her progress to the next rank. Conversely, opening less than the recommended amount meant she would advance faster, but the impurities in the meridians would harden with each rank up, making them more difficult to clear. Xiao Qian theorized that at the highest levels of cultivation, cultivators would reach a hidden limit and would find it virtually impossible to open more meridians.

She was floored by this revelation. Since she never opened a meridian at the Low Copper level, this meant that she would be able to open a second meridian right now if she wanted. Using some general information about what types of arts used which meridians, she began planning which channels to prioritize.

The one that interested her most was the mind meridian, which would enhance her perceptive and reactive abilities and give her access to advanced sensory combat arts. Since speed and perception were already her strong suits, she felt that specializing further would be the best way to advance rather than trying to be well rounded at everything. However, a problem she had run into more than once was lack of damage dealing capabilities. So, she decided to choose a meridian that could help her immediately survive in fights first before going for the more long-term option.

After browsing many manuals in the black market, she found that one of the most versatile attack meridians were in the hands. Not only could you strike with them, but you could also affect your wielded weapon in various ways. So, following the instructions listed in the Compendium, she began prepping to open them once she was able to leave the slums. She didn’t want to risk opening them beforehand, for fear of the pressurized qi and impurity expulsion drawing attention to her location.

As her first week in the gutter came to a close, Aiden finally called on her debt to him for his ‘big delivery’. Coincidentally, this perfectly aligned with the day that she had agreed to meet up with Thomas. She would work with Aiden tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoon go and see if things are as bad as she had feared or not.